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The Arizona Cardinals are a Professional American Football team based in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area . In 2006, the club began playing all home games at University Of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale , a suburb west of Phoenix. The team's headquarters and practice facility are located in Tempe , where they have been located since relocating from St. Louis after the 1987 Season . The Cardinals are currently members of the Western Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). OVERVIEW The Cardinals are the oldest continuous professional American football club in the , as mistaken by many). They then changed their name to the Racine Cardinals after they started wearing dark reddish uniforms, inherited from the Collegiate Chicago Maroons . This hand-me-down, low-budget situation would prove to be a good metaphor for the team's chronology. After becoming a charter member of the NFL in 1920 , the club was renamed the Chicago Cardinals, in part to distinguish them from a new franchise that was actually placed in Racine, Wisconsin. In 1944, during the lean years of World War II , the Cardinals temporarily merged into the Pittsburgh Steelers and became one franchise, usually referred to as Card-Pitt , for that one season. The Cardinals moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 1960 becoming the '''St. Louis Cardinals''', often called the "St. Louis Football Cardinals" to distinguish them from The Baseball Team , and also sometimes called "The Big Red" during some brushes with success in the 1970s. After an unsuccessful campaign for a new football-only stadium in St. Louis, the club relocated to the Phoenix metropolitan area in 1988 , first playing at Sun Devil Stadium in the suburb of Tempe. The team was known as the '''Phoenix Cardinals''' before it started using "Arizona" in its name in 1994 . Despite moving to St. Louis and then to Arizona , the Cardinals for decades remained in either an Eastern conference or division. When the league was divided into Eastern and Western conferences prior to the 1953 Season , the Cardinals were placed in the East while the Chicago Bears were placed in the West. After the 1970 AFL-NFL Merger , the team was placed in the NFC East. The Cardinals were finally moved to the NFC West despite their complaints as part of the 2002 Realignment . The Cardinals have historically been known as a chronic loser, better known to historians for survival than for very many notable on-field accomplishments. They were NFL Champions in 1925 and 1947 and last played for the NFL title in 1948 . Their good post-war years were actually a remarkable comeback for a team that had been derisively called the "Carpets" during their winless season as "Card-Pitt". However, the team has not won a league title nor played in the championship game since then, and thus currently holds the NFL record for the longest championship drought and along with the Houston Texans (founded in 2002) are the only team not to appear in a conference championship game. The team has also won only two division titles ( 1974 and 1975 ) since their 1947 NFL championship. Despite being the oldest existing professional football franchise in the United States, the Cardinals have a remarkably lean postseason history, with an all-time record of 2-5 (not counting the 1964 Bert Bell Benefit Bowl ). They did win a Wild Card game against the Dallas Cowboys in 1998. The team's foibles have caused popular sportswriter Will Leitch, a fan of the Cardinals, to refer to the franchise as "The Buzzsaw that is the Arizona Cardinals". "The Buzzsaw Has No Idea What It's Doing", deadspin.com The Cardinals conduct their annual summer training camp at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. FRANCHISE HISTORY Chicago years (1898-1959) The Cardinals are the oldest existing football club in the United States, beginning as an amateur athletic club team in Chicago named the Morgan Athletic Club, which was founded by Chicago painter/builder Chris O'Brien in 1898. Early in the 20th century (by 1913), the team turned professional. O'Brien later moved them to Chicago's Normal Park and renamed them the ''Racine Normals'', since Normal Park was located on Racine Avenue in Chicago. In 1901, O'Brien bought used Maroon uniforms from the University Of Chicago , the colors of which had by then faded, leading O'Brien to exclaim, "That's not maroon, it's cardinal red!" It was then that the team changed its name to the Racine Cardinals. The team disbanded in 1906 mostly for lack of local competition, but reformed in 1913. They were forced to suspend operations for a second time in 1918 due to World War I and the outbreak of the Spanish Flu Pandemic . They resumed operations later in the year, and have since operated continuously. In 1920, the team became a charter member of the American Professional Football Association (which became the NFL in 1922 ), for a franchise fee of $100 USD . The Cardinals and the Bears (originally founded as the Decatur Staleys before moving to Chicago in 1921 ) are the only charter members of the NFL still in existence, though the Green Bay Packers , who joined the league in 1921, existed prior to the formation of the NFL. The person keeping the minutes of the first league meeting, unfamiliar with the nuances of Chicago football, recorded the Cardinals as Racine, Wisconsin. The team was renamed the Chicago Cardinals in 1922 after a team from that city entered the league. That season the team moved to Comiskey Park . The Cardinals won their first NFL championship in 1925, finishing the season with a record of 11-2-1. In a controversial ruling by the league, the Pottsville Maroons , the team with the best record, had their franchise revoked for violating the territorial rights of the Frankford Yellow Jackets . Thus, the Cardinals won the 1925 title by default. (''For more on the controversy, see Pottsville Maroons ''.) The Cardinals posted a winning record only twice in the twenty years ( 1931 and 1935 ) after their championship — including 10 straight losing seasons from 1936 to 1945 . Dr. David Jones bought the team from O'Brien in 1929 . In 1932 the team was purchased by Charles Bidwill , then a vice president of the Chicago Bears. The team has been under the ownership of the Bidwill family since then. In 1944 , owing to player shortages caused by World War II, the Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers merged for one year and were known as the "Card-Pitt", or derisively as the "Carpets" as they were winless that season. The Cardinals won their last NFL championship game in 1947 (28-21 over the Philadelphia Eagles ) with their "Million-Dollar Backfield", which included Quarterback Paul Christman , Halfback Charley Trippi , halfback Elmer Angsman , and Fullback Pat Harder , piling up 282 rushing yards. However, Bidwill was not around to see it; he'd died before the season, leaving the team to his wife Violet. He had, however, beaten the Chicago Rockets of the upstart All-America Football Conference for the rights to Trippi. This signing is generally acknowledged as the final piece in the championship puzzle. They advanced to the championship game the Next Season , but lost 7-0 in a rematch with the Eagles, played in a heavy snowstorm that almost completely obscured the field. To date, it is the franchise's only home playoff game of any kind. The next year, Violet Bidwill married St. Louis businessman Walter Wolfner. The 1950s were dismal for the team, with only 33 victories for the decade. Most years found the Cardinals in last place and in their best year of the decade (1956), they finished second with a 7-5 record. These poor performances, coupled with the near-mythic status of the crosstown Bears, resulted in a decline in attendance and revenue. The Bidwills engineered a deal with the NFL which sent the Cardinals to St. Louis beginning with the 1960 season, a move which doubled to block St. Louis as a market against the emerging American Football League . St. Louis years (1960-1987) Coincidentally, St. Louis already had a baseball team called the "Cardinals". The established National League team eventually decided against pressing a formal objection to another sports team in the city using the same name. Sports fans and local news broadcasters called the teams "the football Cardinals" and "the baseball Cardinals" to distinguish the two. The new St. Louis football Cardinals were much improved, and the team was competitive for much of the 1960s. New stars emerged, such as Larry Wilson , Charley Johnson , Jim Bakken , Sonny Randle , and Jim Hart . However, in an era when only two or four teams qualified for the NFL playoffs, the Cardinals' playoff drought continued, though the team did advance to the Playoff Bowl in 1964. Violet Bidwill Wolfner died in 1962, and her sons, Bill and Charles, Jr. took control. Bill Bidwill became sole owner in 1972 and still owns the team today. Only the New York Giants and Chicago Bears have been in the hands of one family longer than the Cardinals. In 1973 , Don Coryell became head coach and the Cardinals registered a 7-0 record to open the 1974 season. They won the NFC East then and in 1975, losing in the divisional playoffs both times. During this period, the Cardinals boasted an effective offense in the wake of a record-setting offensive line which included standouts Dan Dierdorf , Conrad Dobler , and Tom Banks . This period for the franchise was characterized by exciting close games, come-from-behind nailbiters, and several frustrating near-misses. The press and league fans began to call the team the "Cardiac Cardinals". Team stars from the 1970s included Pro Football Hall Of Fame cornerback Roger Wehrli , wide receiver Mel Gray , and running backs Terry Metcalf and Jim Otis . On Thanksgiving Day 1976 , the Cardinals suffered a controversial loss to the Dallas Cowboys. Cardinal tight end J.V. Cain , running an apparent game-winning route, was shoved out of the end zone by Dallas defensive backs Cliff Harris and Charlie Waters in what appeared to be obvious interference, but a penalty was not called. {Link without Title} With this loss, the Cardinals were dethroned from the divisional lead and became the first NFC team to reach 10 wins without qualifying for the playoffs. In 1977 , the Cardinals started slowly but won 6 consecutive games before losing the Thanksgiving Day game to the Miami Dolphins , 55-14. Bob Griese 's record-setting day turned out to be the first of 12 straight losses for the Cardinals (extending into 1978), a streak which included being only the second team ever to lose to the previously-winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers . Coryell and several key players, including Dobler and Metcalf, departed the team at the end of the 1977 season. The Cardinals would make the playoffs only once in the next 21 years, and that appearance was in a 16-team tournament at the end of the strike-shortened 1982 NFL Season . The Cardinals experienced several years of notoriously poor drafts and unfortunate personnel moves in the late 1970s, typified by the first-round selection of kicker Steve Little and hiring of college coaching legend Bud Wilkinson in 1978 . However, the Cardinals had some success in the early 1980s , posting three consecutive winning seasons from 1981 to 1984. The heart of this squad was the prolific tandem of quarterback Neil Lomax and wide receiver Roy Green . During the Cardinals' 28-year stay in St. Louis, they advanced to the playoffs just three times (1974, 1975 & 1982), never hosting or winning in any appearance. The team left St. Louis before the 1988 Season , after Bidwill was unable to convince the city to build a new stadium. Arizona years (1988-Present) In 1988, the Cardinals moved to Arizona, and the Phoenix Cardinals started playing home games in Sun Devil Stadium on the campus of Arizona State University . In March of 1994, in a move designed to better market the franchise to a statewide fan base, team owner Bill Bidwill announced his intention to change the name of the team to the Arizona Cardinals. Arizona Cardinals team history, azcardinals.com The rest of the NFL owners quickly approved the name change. However, the Cardinals spent most of their first decade in Arizona as a cellar-dweller. Things began to look up during the 1998 season as Jake Plummer enjoyed his greatest stretch of success during his tenure with the franchise, in terms of victories at least, as his quarterback rating was still an average 75.0. The team during that time had once again been dubbed the Cardiac Cards by the local and national media "'Boys wary of cardiac Cards", ESPN.com December 29, 1998 as eight of their 16 regular-season games were decided by three points or less, and seven of those games ended in favor of the Cardinals. Solidifying their status as the team to beat in the clutch, as the Cardinals, with a 6-7 record going into the 15th week, won 3 straight games to clinch a playoff spot, including one that very week which had to be decided in overtime, and the total margin of those 3 victories was a mere 8 points. This and the fact that none of their victories had been to teams with winning records made them heavy underdogs going into their Wild Card Playoff game against the Dallas Cowboys. Considering their two regular season losses to the Cowboys and the fact that they had been on the losing end of 16 of the last 17 games against their division rivals, including 9 straight losses at Texas Stadium ,1 the "Team of the Nineties" seemed to have history, among other forces, on their side. To further the situation, the Cardinals franchise had not won a single playoff game since their title year of 1947, resulting in the longest active drought in professional sports history. The Cardinals won the game 20-7; however, the final score made the game appear closer than it actually was, as Arizona dominated the Cowboys on both ends of the football throughout the game. At Texas Stadium that afternoon, the Cardinals jumped out to a 10-0 halftime lead. The Cardinals would later increase that lead to 20-0 in the final minutes of the 4th quarter. The Cowboys' only score was a touchdown late in the 4th quarter, and the Cardinals held on for the upset. The Cardinals, who had suffered for 51 years as the NFL's doormat, finally had a playoff win. However, the distinction was short lived as the Cardinals fell in the divisional round of the playoffs to the Minnesota Vikings who possessed a 15-1 record as well as the highest-scoring offense in NFL history. The Vikings won the game 41-21 in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis .2 The Cardinals have not won more than seven games in a season since their 1998 playoff appearance. Coming off of their playoff run in 1998, the Cardinals were expected to do bigger and better things in 1999, but a tough schedule ranked in the top 5 as well as key injuries resulted in what would be another disappointing season, getting off to a 2-6 start. However, the Cards would make another run winning 4 straight to get back into the playoff chase, but it was not meant to be as Arizona lost their last 4 to finish with a disappointing 6-10 record. The team finished with 5-11 records in 2005 and 2006. In 2000, Maricopa County voters passed a ballot initiative by a margin of 51% to 49%, providing funding for a new Cardinals stadium (as well as for improvements to Major League Baseball Spring Training facilities in the greater Phoenix region; and youth recreation). After some legal obstacles, the Cardinals began construction of their new facility in April 2003, in Glendale, one of the western suburbs of Phoenix. University of Phoenix Stadium features a Retractable Roof and a slide-out grass surface, which is good for the hot desert weather; the new stadium has a state-of-the-art air-conditioning system and high-back seats. LOGO AND UNIFORMS The team has used the cardinal red jerseys since Chris O'Brien bought them for the club in 1901. And for most of its history, the Cardinals have basically used the same basic uniform design of white helmets, white pants with red stripes on the sides, and either red or white jerseys. Starting in 1947, the team had a logo of a Cardinal Bird perched on the stitches of a football. However, the club did not attach a logo to their helmets until they debuted a cardinal-head logo in 1960, the year the franchise moved from Chicago to St. Louis. When the Cardinals moved to Arizona in 1988, the Flag Of Arizona was added to the sleeves. And in 1990, the team began wearing red pants with their white jerseys. In opted to have the team wear only the white pants for the entire season. Hoping to break a six-game losing streak, the Cardinals wore the red pants for the first time on October 29, 2006 in a game at Lambeau Field against the Green Bay Packers. The Packers won 31-14, and the Cards headed into their bye week with a 1-7 mark. Following their bye week, the Cardinals came out in their all-red combination at home against the Dallas Cowboys and lost, 27-10. Arizona has not worn the red pants since that loss to the Cowboys, and managed to win four of their last seven games. In the Madden NFL video game series, the Cardinals were outfitted in the all-red combination at home and the all-white combination on the road. For their first 18 years in Arizona, the Cardinals, like many other NFL teams in warm climates, wore their white jerseys at home during the first half of the season — forcing opponents to suffer in their darker-colored jerseys during the 120-degree autumns in Arizona. However, this tradition did not continue when the Cardinals moved to University of Phoenix Stadium in 2006, as early-season games are played with the roof closed. With the temperature inside at a comfortable 70 degrees, Green opted to have the Cardinals wear their red jerseys at home full-time. It is unclear whether this will continue under new coach Ken Whisenhunt , or Whisenhunt will revert to having the team wear its white jerseys for early season home games. |
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"6" align="center" '''Chicago Cardinals (APFA)''' |
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1920 3 2 1 6th APFA<sup>1</sup> Rowspan |
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"6" align="center" '''Chicago Cardinals (NFL)''' |
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1922 8 3 0 3rd NFL Valign |
"middle" rowspan="3" ''The NFL did not hold playoff games until 1932'' |
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1926 5 6 1 10th NFL Rowspan |
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"6" align="center" '''Card-Pitt''' |
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"6" align="center" '''Chicago Cardinals''' |
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"6" align="center" '''St Louis Cardinals''' |
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1974 10 4 0 '''1st NFC East''' Lost
| "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/information/entry/NFL_playoffs,_1974-75" class="copylinks">Divisional Playoffs (Vikings) 30-14 |
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1975 11 3 0 '''1st NFC East''' Lost
| "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/information/entry/NFL_playoffs,_1975-76" class="copylinks">Divisional Playoffs ( Rams ) 35-23 |
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1982 5 4 0 6th NFC Conf+ Lost
| "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/information/entry/NFL_playoffs,_1982-83" class="copylinks">First Round (Packers) 41-16 |
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"6" align="center" '''Phoenix Cardinals''' |
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"6" align="center" '''Arizona Cardinals''' |
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1998 9 7 0 2nd NFC East '''Won'''
| "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/information/entry/NFL_playoffs,_1998-99" class="copylinks">Wild Card Playoffs (Cowboys) 20-7<br />Lost Divisional Playoffs (Vikings) 41-21 |
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| "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/information/entry/2006_Arizona_Cardinals_season" class="copylinks">2006 5 11 0 4th NFC West -- |
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"3"Totals 456 659 39 |
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"2" (1920-2006, regular season) <!-- Correct up to Dec 3, 2006 --> |
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"2" (1920-2006, playoffs) <!-- Correct up to Dec 3, 2006 --> |
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"2" (all games, 1920-2006, including playoffs) <!-- Correct up to Dec 3, 2006 --> |
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